How to Read and Calculate Football Betting odds?

Football is the most popular sport in the world. Although there is no exact figure, it is estimated that about 4 billion people watch at least a few minutes of some match during the FIFA World Cup. This implies that more than 50 percent of the entire population of the Earth watches football. If you are from the USA and you are reading this article, we are talking about what you call soccer, and in the rest of the world, it is known as football. If you have never watched soccer, we advise you to start, because you will quickly understand why it is so popular everywhere.

And what is the best way to get actively involved in watching matches and make them even more interesting? To place bets, of course. Then you will watch every minute with even more attention, and you also have a chance to prove your knowledge of your favorite sport. The best feeling is when you win money and prove to friends that your prediction was correct. However, if you are just starting to bet, you may not be able to understand the difference between the types of odds offered to you. So we will explain to you how to read and calculate football betting odds. If you are not interested in football, be sure to keep reading, because the types of odds are the same for all sports.

Types of odds

There are three most popular types of odds, used in the USA, UK, and Europe, but also around the world. There are also increasingly popular Asian ones, of which there are several types and we will also dedicate a special paragraph to them. Which one will be available to you, generally depends on the geographical location where you live. Of course, this is the case if we are talking about brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. On the other hand, online casinos usually offer at least a few types of odds. So they are an ideal option if there is no offer of odds that you want, at your local sportsbooks. We contacted bookmakers from ufa.bet online casino and they confirmed to us that the practice of most online casinos is to offer fractional, decimal, Moneyline, as well as at least one type of Asian odds.

Fractional odds

This type, also known as British, UK, or traditional, is primarily used in the UK, Ireland as well as in some other Commonwealth members, but rarely outside those countries. As the name suggests, the coefficient is shown as a fraction. You will easily recognize them because there is a clash between the two numbers. What interests you is what which number represents. The first number represents the potential win, and the second the stake. If you want to convert them to a decimal coefficient, which is much more used around the world, it’s very simple. All you have to do is divide the first number by the second and add it up by one. We will give you an example. Let fractional be 1/2. When you divide the number 1 by the number two, you get 0.5, and when you add that to 1, you get a decimal odds of 1.5

Decimal odds

The most popular type, it is used in most casinos in the world. It is also known as the European coefficient. This type has gained popularity because it is the easiest to understand. You can see who is the favorite and who is the underdog as soon as you look at the odds. Because there is no odd lower than 1.01 your stake is already counted and then it is very easy to calculate the potential payout. All you need to do is multiply the money you invested with the coefficient. For example, if 2.1 is the coefficient on the win of your favorite football club and you bet 100 dollars, you will win 210 dollars. You see, very simple.

Moneyline odds

Moneyline odds are usually called American because they are used in the USA. They differ significantly from the previous two because they have a sign before the coefficient, which shows whether they are positive or negative. Only in front of the number 100, there is no sign because 100 is marked with “even”. This is like a coefficient of 1 for decimal odds. If there is a minus in front of the number, it means that if the team you bet on wins, you will win less money than what you invested. While if there is a plus in front of the number, you will win more than you invested. You don’t understand? Let us explain to you by example. If the odds are -200, it means that for 100 dollars invested, you will win 150 dollars, which means that when the invested money is deducted, the profit is 50 dollars. And hence the minus sign. And if it’s +200, you’ll win 300 dollars on the 100 dollars invested, which brings in a net profit of 200 dollars.

Asian odds

You guessed it, they are used in Asia, although they are gaining in popularity worldwide because of the many Asian people living outside of their home countries. The three most common types of Asian are the Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian coefficients. The Chinese or Hong Kong coefficient is very easy to understand. For example, if the Chinese coefficient is 0.5, that it is 1.5 if converted to a decimal coefficient.

Malaysian is exactly the same as American, only called differently. Indonesian is also similar to American, but the format is different. So to get the American equivalent of the Indonesian coefficient you need to multiply the Indonesian by the number 100. If Malaysian is +5, American is +500. Again, as you can see, it is very simple.

Conclusion:

None of the types is complicated, it just depends on what suits you best and the type you are used to. If you are just starting out with sports betting, then choose the one you like best. In some sportsbooks, you will also see something called implied probability and it will be presented in percentages. It is the probability that a certain outcome will occur. You can very easily calculate this using any type of odds.